Kamping, E.M. (2022) Non-Social Reward Processing in Autism Spectrum Disorder: a Systematic Review. Master thesis, Psychology.
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Abstract
One of the key characteristics of autism spectrum disorder (ASD) is impaired social functioning. It has been hypothesized that people with autism lack motivation for social stimuli due to social reward hyposensitivity. Recent research suggests hyposensitivity during reward processing in ASD is not restricted to social rewards. The main objective of the current study was to investigate if ASD-individuals are hyposensitive towards non-social stimuli as well. A systematic review is performed where 23 studies were included for qualitative analysis. The findings are inconclusive. Less than half of the included studies showed aberrant results that would indicate under responsiveness (physiological and behavioural responses) during non- social reward processing in ASD-individuals compared to typically developing individuals. There was no clear evidence that differences between studies in methodological approaches could explain these inconsistent findings regarding non-social reward processing in ASD. Nevertheless, taking the current findings and findings of social reward processing into account there seems to be at least some evidence for altered (non-)social reward processing in ASD- individuals. Furthermore, some studies indicate possible altered reward sensitivity towards specific or domain related stimuli. So the term ‘non-social’ might be too broad. Future research might focus on sensitivity towards specific types of reward in ASD-individuals. Keywords: ASD, autis*, reward processing, non-social
| Item Type: | Thesis (Master) |
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| Supervisor name: | Gaastra, G.F. |
| Degree programme: | Psychology |
| Differentiation route: | Clinical Neuropsychology (CN) [Master Psychology] |
| Date Deposited: | 12 Jan 2022 08:58 |
| Last Modified: | 12 Jan 2022 08:58 |
| URI: | http://gmwpublic.studenttheses.ub.rug.nl/id/eprint/33 |
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